Devastating floods and landslides have hit India, Nepal, and Bangladesh over the past week, as the monsoon season has brought extremely heavy rains.

Amidst reports of rising death tolls in the region, there's one flicker of positivity - footage has emerged of trained elephants helping with the rescue efforts, as they carry people to safety from areas where they've been trapped by raging floodwater.

Local business owners deployed elephants and tractor trailers to carry the guests to safety, reaching the nearest open road and the local airport.

"We are mobilising all the resources we have to ensure that everyone is safe," local district chief Narayan Prasad Bhatta told BBC News. You can see elephants helping with the rescue mission in the AFP video below:

The Asian elephants mobilised for these rescues are captive animals that are used for transportation in the region fairly often. Intelligent and empathetic, they are able to sense the direness of a natural disaster.

Even though elephants carry a deep cultural significance in Asia where people have been taming them for thousands of years, human relationship with the now-endangered species is highly problematic.

This is especially true of captive elephants used for tourism purposes - to offer people rides and photo opportunities. As elephants don't breed well in captivity, calves are captured from the wild and "broken in", often with harsh training methods.